Citigroup: Financial Winners & Losers

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Citigroup ( C) was among the losers of the financial sector Wednesday after word it will spin off its Primerica insurance unit, raising as much as $250 million for the bank.

Citigroup was lately down 0.5% as the bank prepares to spin off Primerica, a move that will enable Citigroup to move more than $2 billion in assets off its balance sheet, according to a report in The Financial Times that cited people familiar with the matter.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Primerica will offer 18 million shares of common stock through the initial public offering at a price between $12 to $14 per share. Citigroup would raise $252 million if the IPO prices at the top of the proposed range. The offering will be priced later Wednesday and the stock will begin trading Thursday under the ticker PRI on the New York Stock Exchange.

According to the FT report, Citigroup could reap up to another $330 million by selling an additional 17 million shares of Primerica to private-equity group Warburg Pincus. Citigroup stands to also receive a $454 million dividend to be paid by Primerica to compensate the bank for keeping most of its old policies, the report said.

Citigroup shares were down 5 cents, or 1.2%, to $4.04.

Other U.S. bank stocks were trading mixed Wednesday as the first quarter winds to a close. Bank of America ( BAC) slipped 0.1% to $17.75 and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM) dipped 0.3% to $44.46, while Wells Fargo ( WFC) gained 0.4% to $30.96.

Overseas banks were in focus, as several Irish banks reversed losses from earlier in the week. Late Tuesday, the country's government said that it will help banks raise 21.8 billion euros ($30 billion) to meet capital requirements before the end of 2010. The additional equity is needed to cover risky loans being transferred to the National Asset Management Agency, or the so-called "bad bank."

Following the fund-raising requirement news, The Bank of Ireland ( IRE) reported a loss of euro1.47 billion ($2 billion) in the final nine months of 2009. The NAMA said Bank of Ireland will need to raise around 2.7 billion euros to meet capital requirements, although Bank of Ireland said it expects to raise "a substantial amount" of capital from private sources.

Shares of Bank of Ireland trading in New York were lately up 8.4% to $8.56. On the other hand, fellow Irish bank Allied Irish Banks ( AIB), which will need to raise roughly 7.4 billion euros, was down 4.9% to $3.13.

Among analyst actions, Keefe Bruyette & Woods analysts lowered 2010 earnings targets for Goldman Sachs ( GS) and Morgan Stanley ( MS) as decent trading and asset management revenues in the first quarter are expected to be offset by weaker investment banking results. KBW left ratings at outperform and market perform, respectively, on the stocks.

Goldman Sachs was lately falling 0.7% to $170.15, and Morgan Stanley was flat at $29.21.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

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